Nutcracker
by Keitorin Asthore
Summary: Ah...I was in a weird mood. HarryxLuna. A Christmas fic!


Author's Note: I'm warning you ahead of time, this is a bit weird. It doesn't really fit with a book, or anything. It's just cutesy. So…yeah…if you like Harry Potter and you like the Nutcracker, than…you'll like this! There's also a wee bit of Cho Chang bashing…nothing against her personally, but I needed a villain-like character…my apologies to Cho.

Also…--disclaimer—Harry Potter is not mine. Do I look like JK Rowling? No. So yeah. All rights are hers. And the Nutcracker belongs to E.T.A. Hoffman.

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Luna stretched lazily and stared up through the lights. If she squinted just right, the candlelights would blur together in a glorious hazy beam. This was her favorite Christmas activity. When she was small she and her mother would lie under the delicious-smelling branches for hours, and Mumma would tell her stories.

Footsteps skipped close to her head and Luna scooted closer to the huge trunk of the evergreen, moving the skirt of her dress closer to her body so no one would wonder why a silvery-blue gown was heaped under the tree, and thus find her. Luna breathed in the comforting pine smell and relaxed. She hated the Hogwarts Christmas party. So many happy people with gifts sent from happy parents who never had to deal with daughters who had seen too much and lived so little. She hadn't received a Christmas gift since she was nine years old. Instead, she listened to the other people cheering and complaining over the presents she would give anything to receive.

Take, for instance, Cho Chang.

The lovely girl was sorting through her presents. There were quite a few of them, from friends and family and her several fervent admirers. "Oh, look how pretty!" Cho cooed over one. "How charming! But wait…where did this come from?" A frill of gleaming red wrapping paper fell inches from Luna's head. "Oh, look at this!" A titter of happy girl laughter grated against Luna's ears. "How _ugly_! I don't want this! What use will I have for an ugly nutcracker?" There was a swish of rich burgundy fabric as Cho stood up. "It's the fire for this one, girls!"

Suddenly the knot of girls squealed apart as Luna materialized from under the tree. "I'll take him," she said, her voice as dreamy as ever.

Cho raised an elegant eyebrow. "You want this ugly thing?" she asked. The nutcracker dangled from her hands.

"I said I would take him," Luna repeated.

"Oh, Loony, dear, even if you're desperate you shouldn't dig through trash," Cho smiled. She tossed the wooden nutcracker into the corner. "Fetch it if you'd like."

The girls tittered again as Luna dove into the dusty corner of the room for the wooden doll. She ignored them. Tenderly she lifted the nutcracker into her arms. The doll's forehead had been scratched in the fall, leaving a lightning-bolt shaped mark. She studied him carefully. The nutcracker was carefully fashioned in Hogwarts robes, with painstakingly carved black hair and brilliant green eyes. There was a strange expression on his face, an expression of longing and sadness and yet hopefulness. Luna knelt at the foot of the tree, cradling the nutcracker in her arms. "It's all right," she whispered to him. "You'll be safe. We have to stay together, you and I. The orphans." Luna made a very lonely picture sitting there, in her silvery dress and her wistful expression. She gave the nutcracker one of her rare true smiles. "We'll be all right."

"He's a special one, you know."

Luna started. She looked up into the face of Mad-Eye Moody. "Hello," she said.

"He's special," Mad-Eye repeated. "A bit weird, but special all the same. Like you." He patted her cheek. "You'll have to keep an eye on him." His magic eye spun to punctuate the sentence.

"What do you mean, I'm special?" she asked. "I'm Loony Lovegood."

"Yeah, but prophets are never accepted in their own town." Mad-Eye gave her a wink, swooped his cloak around him, and stumped off.

Luna looked down at the nutcracker. "Well, you must be unusual if Mad-Eye Moody called you weird," she said. She studied his wooden face. "Don't worry. I don't think you're weird." Luna kissed him tenderly on the cheek.

"Hey, watch this! _Accio Nutcracker_!"

The nutcracker jerked out of Luna's arms, hitting her sharply on the chin, and flew into the hands of Draco Malfoy. "I got Loony's dolly!" he jeered. He waved it above his head. "Want it back, Loony? Come get it!"  
Luna leaped to her feet. "Give it back," she said, her voice still dreamy. "I want him back."

"Aw, isn't that sweet, lads? Ickle Loonykins wants her dolly back," Draco cooed. He tossed it up in the air and raised his wand. "_Diffindo_!"

Luna stared in wide eyed horror as the wooden nutcracker began to fall apart. "No!" she cried, her dreamy voice abandoning her. But before she could do anything, another voice bellowed the disarming spell, and the doll fell to the ground. Luna ran to him.

"What's this, ferret, picking on little girls now?" the red-headed boy smirked.

"Not just a girl, he has to pick on a younger girl," the brunette girl said. She knelt beside Luna. "Here, let me…_Reparo_!" The pieces flew back together. "Oh, dear. His arm's not quite right..."

"He's fine," Luna whispered, clutching the doll to her chest. "Thank you." She ran, leaving the boy and girl with their shiny prefect badges to take care of Malfoy. She ran up stairs, down stairs, through hallways, until she was thoroughly exhausted and partially lost. Then she finally allowed herself to slide down to the floor and study the damage. "I'm sorry," she said. "You're hurt now, and it's my fault." Luna balanced him on her knees, reached up, and untied the ribbon holding back her long hair. "I'm sorry. I'll take care of you." Tenderly she twined the silver satin ribbon around his arm and tied it. The doll still had such a forlorn expression on his small face. Luna rocked him in her arms. "Last night in a dream that came to me, I saw a face and I knew right then that you were meant for me," she sang softly. "Last night, in a dance from long ago, as the music fades and we walk away, how did we let it go?"

Her voice was soft and faint. The last time she'd heard this song, she was nine. But the melody was imbedded in her memories, and it came to her soft lips easily as she sang to her beloved nutcracker. Luna sang to him, and slowly drooped into sleep.

She awoke suddenly in the middle of the night, her body cold and aching from sleeping on the cold stone floor. And the nutcracker was gone.

"What's going on?" she whispered aloud.

A soft creak startled her. Luna got onto her hands and knees, peering out into the dark hallway. "Whos' there?" she called.

"Luna!" She paused. "Luna, come and help me!"

She took off running down the hall, following the voice. There was a soft light ahead, a soft light that was growing brighter and brighter with each step that she took. She had no idea where she was going, but every time she would start to feel lost, she would here the voice again. "Luna! Luna, come and help me!"

Luna burst into the great hall. The majestic trees still reached to the ceiling, but the warm candle glow was harsh now, and cast long shadows across the room. Assembled in the room were rows and rows of slender, shadowy figures. Luna gasped. They were snakes. The great hall was overrun by snakes. They twined everywhere, their dark bodies slithering and sliding over the floor like thick silky ropes.

And in the middle stood one human figure. It was quite small, and quite thin. Its left arm was tied up with some sort of silvery fabric, but its right hand held a wand tightly and proudly. The figure turned.

"Luna! Luna, come and help me!" the nutcracker boy called.

Then his small body was swallowed up by the snakes. They curled their bodies tightly around him in a deadly, loving embrace. His right arm still miraculously moved, waving the wand about and sending several snakes flying. But he was no match for them.

Luna felt fury building up in her body. She couldn't explain it. But the righteous anger began to overwhelm her. Before she knew what she was doing, she ran down the stone steps. "Leave him alone!" she shouted. "Leave him alone!" She felt for the wand she kept behind her ear and grasped it. "I told you to leave him alone." All spells and charms had left her. She couldn't think of anything. So she threw the wand.

It struck the largest of the snakes square on the head. It hissed in pain and fury as it fell back. And then it began to melt. The other snakes followed him, twining belligerently away.

Luna ran to her nutcracker. He lay slumped on the floor, his face pale and his left arm still twisted. She tenderly lifted his head onto her lap. "It's all right," she whispered, stroking his cheek. "It's all right. They're gone."

The wooden eyelids blinked open slowly. "I knew you would come," he smiled. He raised himself into a sitting position.

"Luna?"

"Someone's calling me," she murmured.

"I know," the nutcracker boy said, still smiling. He came closer to her.

"Luna."

He kissed her softly on the lips.

"Luna, wake up."

Luna blinked. She was lying under the Christmas tree still, and a face was peering at her through the hazy lights.

"Luna, everyone else is going up to bed. It's late."

She sat up slowly. "You…you're…"

He blinked. "I'm Harry," he said. He held out his hand to help her up.

"But you look like…like…" She paused as Harry helped her to her feet. "I had a strange dream."

Harry smiled at her. "What was it about?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Oh, it's nothing," she said. "I suppose I should go up to my room."

"Oh, but before you go…" Harry handed something to her. "I believe this is yours."

Luna's fingers trembled as she took her silver hair ribbon from his hands.

"This is yours, too," he whispered. And Harry leaned in to kiss Luna tenderly on the lips.

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Author's Note: Yay! Harry x Luna! Yay! Christmas!

Yeah…don't ask where this came from…I've been in a freaky-odd mood lately…

Well, this is my 41st story, but my first published Harry Potter. My next HP stories won't be quite as weird, I promise!  
Oh, and go to my homepage and enter my fanfiction/fanart contests!!


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